Hydrophobically modified chitin/halloysite nanotubes composite sponges for high efficiency oil-water separation.

Hydrophobically modified chitin/halloysite nanotubes composite sponges for high efficiency oil-water separation. Int J Biol Macromol. 2019 Mar 29;: Authors: Zhao X, Luo Y, Tan P, Liu M, Zhou C Abstract A high-performance oil-water separation device that built by environment-friendly materials is a promising strategy to solve water pollution problem. In this paper, we developed an oil-water separation system with chitin/halloysite nanotubes (C/HNTs) composites. C/HNTs were crosslinked by epichlorohydrin and freeze-dried, then a porous sponge was formed. The C/HNTs sponge was modified to be hydrophobic via immersing into bromohexadecane ethanol solution. The surface structure, mechanical properties, microstructure, oil absorption and oil-water separation ability of the C/HNTs sponge were investigated. The addition of HNTs significantly increased the compressive strength of chitin hydrogel without influence on porous structure. IR spectra indicated the successful coating of bromohexadecane on the C/HNTs sponge surface, which enabled the hydrophobicity and lipophilicity of this construct. The inside construct of the C/HNTs sponges were full of interconnected pores, their average size ranges from 250 to 500 μm. The absorption capability for various oil and grease were measured, including methylbenzene, sunflower seed oil, carbon dichloride, n-hexane, chloroform and acetone. We found that the total amount of chloroform absorbed by a C/H...
Source: International Journal of Biological Macromolecules - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: Int J Biol Macromol Source Type: research